200 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Slioeiifeld, " Picking and packing," by Mr. Tennant, and perhaps 

 other papers. Tlie reprints are made to save time and for the con- 

 venience of the class. 



Gi'ape Groioing in Northern Chautauqua^ hy E. 8. Bartholomew^ 



The question is often asked, why it is that the valley lying along 

 the sonth shore of Lake Erie, within the border of Chautauqua 

 county, is so much better for grape gr-^iwing than very many other 

 sections of the United States, for it is a fact that the grape vine is 

 found growing wild in almost every part of the country, and the 

 cultivated varieties have been tried almost everywhere. 



I will answer, hrst, negatively, that it is not in the soil, neither is 

 it in the fact that the valleys of Chantauqua and Bear Lakes lie 

 elevated and south of Lake Erie at a distance of seven to eight 

 miles. Then why do not the vines perfect fruit as well in so many 

 other locations, and as regularly as in this valley? It is the climate. 

 This peculiar condition of the climate is the resnlt of two prominent 

 canses : the great body of water of Erie on the north, furnishing by 

 its evaporation just the necessary hygrometrical condition of the 

 atmosphere; and the lake helps to form a thermal belt, or stratum 

 of warm air, furnishing a more even temperature during the night, 

 thus aiding the early and perfect maturing of the grape, and afford- 

 ing immunity from frost. -^^ * * Thus we have a more uniform 

 temperature during the 24: hours, so essential to the earlier maturing 

 of the fruit. 



This thermal stratum is intensified by the peculiar topographical 

 formation of the earth forming the south boundary of the valley. 

 The northern end of the Alleghany mountains forms a ridge of 

 high land of a somewhat circular form, with its highest point near- 

 est the lake, about two miles west of the gorge of Chantauqua 

 creek, at an altitude of about seven hundred feet above the lake and 

 about two miles from it. From this point westward it rounds off 

 from the lake, and begins to break down in its altitude until it is 

 lost in the great plain of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Eastward 

 it retains its nearness to the lake to a point about^three miles east of 

 the village of Westfield, when it begins to recede from the lake, and 

 to slowly reduce its altitude, until south of Fredonia it is from five 

 to six miles from the lake. In the towns of Sheridan and Hanover 



